


The Last Days of July

by RiverKaze



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Depression, Happy Birthday Lance (Voltron), Homesick Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Multi, Nosebleed, POV Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2019-06-19 11:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15509349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiverKaze/pseuds/RiverKaze
Summary: The end of July had always made Lance happy in the past. Now, being stuck in space, it made him sad. He missed his family more than anything in those last days of July, but he was going to get though this. He needed to get through this, and with the help of his fellow paladins, maybe he would.





	1. 27th of July

**Author's Note:**

> I started this today, on my birthday, as a gift for the Voltron fandom and for the end of JuLance. I hope you all enjoy it.
> 
> Note:  
> The fight with Lotor didn't happen and so they still have the castle ship. Lotor ran too quickly for them to chase and so team Voltron is on stand by as they wait to hear word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited.   
> Changed Cosmo's name from Wolf but other than that just some spelling and grammar corrected.   
> Enjoy.

It was almost that time of year again and Lance wasn’t sure if he was excited or depressed. Tomorrow would have been his birthday, had the still been on earth. Pidge’s computer had kept track of exactly how long they had been up in space. It was just another reminder for Lance about how long they had been in space.

He couldn’t help but blame himself for that, as he felt it was his fault for bringing everyone here, taking them from their families. Not that he would ever regret the lives they had saved, but he missed his family and hated that his reckless move took everyone else from their own. Apart from Pidge and Keith, which had been quite a surprise. And sure, team Voltron was his family as well, but they weren’t the one's he'd grown up with, that understood his insecurities, his likes, his dislikes. The one's he would be able to confide in about his confused feelings.

Lance groaned as he pushed himself off his bed. He wasn’t sure how he was going to manage these next couple of days. He really hoped, beyond hope, that the team would be busy. Busy enough that Hunk would forget about his birthday at least. The big guy was the only one of them that should know what the date meant to him, considering they'd been friends for such a long time. Lance scrubbed his hands over his face as he sighed deeply. He needed to appear positive, he needed to get through this, nd to do that he’d need to start with breakfast.

Breakfast turned out to be about as uneventful as expected, which Lance was beyond grateful for. Everyone sat at the table in little groups, in their own little worlds, and it meant Lance didn’t have to act like his usual energetic self. He sat quietly and observed the team. Pidge and Hunk were talking about some sort of science that Lance had no idea about, occasionally saying something about Matt. Allura and Coran were having some kind of chat with Romelle about Altean stuff. While Keith and his mother were having a conversation with Shiro on the other end of the table, Lance couldn’t hear them from his side.

He let a small sad smile cross his face as he got up and put his dishes back in the kitchen. The feeling of loneliness felt like a crushing weight on shoulders knowing that his departure would go unnoticed. He made his way to one of the observation decks, hoping he’d wouldn’t be found until he was needed to pilot the red lion. It felt like the only reason he was needed right now, and he knew that once Shiro was better, once the man had both arms again, they wouldn’t need Lance any longer again. 

What he wasn’t expecting was being rammed in the back by a cosmic wolf and falling flat on his face. His nose throbbed as he turned a glare to the wolf, narrowing his eyes as he spotted the wolf panting happily by his head.

“Happy with yourself, are we?” Lance said as he sat up. He moved to rub his sore nose but pulled his hand away when he registered the wet feeling. There was blood dripping between his fingers and the ache in of his nose throbbed harder.

“Look what you’ve done.” Lance uttered. The wolf tilted his head at Lance, quizzically, and Lance stuck out his bloody hand to the wolf, trying to emphasise his point. “See, you did this.”

The wolf looked at the hand for a second before sticking his nose closer to sniff it. The cold nose and hot breath felt weird to Lance as the wolf sniffed over the cooling blood on his hand. He felt the wolf's huff before it began to lick the blood from his hand. Lance immediately recoiled, pulling that hand back quickly and falling back on his other.

“Ew,” Lance said, feeling really repulsed, as he looked at his now slobbery and bloody hand. “Why?” he whined as he moved to get up.

As he made to move, making sure his disgusting hand didn’t touch anything, he stumbled in surprise as he watched the wolf teleport away. Now that he was no longer focused on the wolf, or his hand, the throbbing of his nose made itself known again. He could feel the blood slowly dripping down his face, and onto his upper lip and further. He could taste the copper tang of it in his mouth and felt it falling off his chin. He groaned to himself, knowing his shirt was now ruined with blood. _It's going to be hell trying to get rid of this blood,_ Lance thought as he tried not to get more blood in his mouth.

The door to the observation deck whooshed open just as Lance reached it, causing him to stagger backwards. The only thing to prevent his fall was Keith quickly grabbing his jacket and pulling him forward. Lance flushed, embarrassed, and clenched a hand onto Keith’s shoulder, bracing himself and trying to steady his breathing as much as he could with blood still running out his nose and into his mouth. 

Lance clutched tighter to Keith as his head began to spin and his ears rang. He wasn’t 100% sure but he thought Keith was trying to talk to him. Only when the ringing died down and his head wasn't spinning so badly, did he realise that he had his head was rested on Keith’s other shoulder. He lifted himself to look up at Keith, his face full of concern before settling on surprise as he saw what a sight Lance made.

“What the hell, Lance?!” Keith inquired, pulling Lance down the hall towards the infirmary. Lance had to concentrate on not tripping over as Keith kept up a quick pace down the hall. 

Lance was about to reply, however they reached the infirmary door. The mechanical whoosh of the door announcing their presence. Shiro, Krolia, and that goddamned cosmic wolf, were already there waiting for them both. Lance couldn’t help the blush that crossed his features, but he did manage to glare at the happy looking wolf that stood by Krolia’s side. He lifted his bloodied hand, the one not in Keith’s own, and pointed it at the traitor.

“You.” Lance said with malice while the wolf come over and licked the tip of his finger. Lance pulled it back quickly but didn’t stop watching the wolf with weary eyes. 

“Lance,” Shiro spoke, stepping forward with his hand outstretched. “Are you okay?”

Lance wanted to snort but his nose was still bleeding, and he didn’t want blood everywhere. “Ah,” Lance sucked in a breath, belatedly remembering his bloodied nose and mouth. He quickly brought his hand up to cough into, coughing out the blood that he had inhaled, accidentally. He made a disgusted face when he brought his hand away. “Aw, yuck.” He looked up to address Shiro without a blood filled mouth. “Just a bloody nose thanks Mr. SpaceWolf here.”

At some point Keith had let go of his hand and gathered tissues and other medical supplies. He shoved the tissues in Lance’s face, making the other boy grab at them before they fell onto the floor. Lance watched, bewildered, when Keith then grabbed his filthy hand to wipe away the blood and wolf slobber. He kept the tissues to his nose until Keith was done with his hand and pulled the other from his face, tissues and all. 

Lance wasn’t really sure what was happening, but he could hear Krolia and Shiro speaking in quiet tones that neither boy could hear. Keith threw the dirty tissues into a pile and placed a cold press to the bridge of Lance's nose, tilting his head back while he did so. Lance couldn’t see Keith anymore, but he could tell that he was wiping the blood from under his nose and top lip, placing a tissue there to stem the flow further. Keith then went to removing as much of the blood from Lance’s skin as possible.

“Your shirt’s pretty much ruined.” Keith stated as he checked him over for any more blood.

Lance let out a startled laugh at that. He already knew it was pretty bad by the way his shirt stuck to his skin. He felt Keith’s hand on the side of his head, tilting it back down. He felt the ice pack slipping and panicked for a second before Keith grabbed it to help hold it to his face. If not for the ice pack, Lance's face would be red from embarrassment instead of the cold.

“You should be good in a couple of minutes,” Keith said softly, “sorry about Cosmo, by the way.”

“You…” _He didn’t, did he?_ , Lance thoughts sputtered, “You seriously called your weird _cosmic_ space wolf, ‘Cosmo’?!”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Keith questioned.

Lance couldn’t answer, it was like the god damned Voltron chant all over again. He couldn’t help but smile at that, even with two years in a weird quantum space... thing... They had tried to explain whatever that place was but Lance hadn’t been paying attention at the time, he had been a bit distracted. But even after all that time, Keith was still the same, and it was a comforting thing. Keith was still just Keith.

“Never change, Keith,” Lance muttered about the tissues.

Keith gave him a confused look, but Lance didn’t pay it any mind. He, instead, pulled the tissues from his nose, happy to note that the bleeding had finally stopped. He looked over at Keith with a smile plastering his face, chucking the tissues to where the pile of dirty tissues, Keith had discarded, lie. He grabbed the cold press from Keith’s hand, placing it back on the bridge of his nose, he was very likely going to get a massive bruise, thanks to Wolf.

“Thanks for this.” Lance said sincerely, looking to everyone in the room but directing his words to Keith. He stood up, bracing himself with one hand on the chair he’d been on, just in case. Once he was certain he wouldn’t fall over, due to the head rush he received upon standing, he spoke again, this time to everyone in the room. “I’m going to go back to my room and sleep, I can tell this is gonna hurt when I wake up.” He said with a laugh.

He left the room as quickly as he could, not looking back to the people within but keeping an eye on Cosmo. He didn’t have any interactions as he made his way to his room. Once there, he couldn’t keep the sob from escaping his lips. It was stupid really, sure his nose hurt but the loneliness still hurt more. He fell asleep after an hour of trying, and failing, to distract himself from the pain of it all.


	2. 28th of July

Lance wasn’t sure if the reason he had slept so long was because of his depressing feelings or because of the exhaustion from losing so much blood yesterday. Head wounds were always the worst for how much they bleed, and hurt. But when he woke up from sleep the clock beside his bed read 11 past 3 in the morning, not that you could really tell it was morning when you were on a space ship, even if the lights did have some sort of day/night cycle. However, it was officially his birthday now and he really didn’t want it to be. He knew he couldn’t change anything, it was still July 28th, there was nothing he could do to change that. But that didn’t stop him from wishing he could.

He rolled out of bed, there was no point in him lyong in bed just to wallow in self pity even more and not get any more sleep. He stretched as he began to move, removing his dirty clothes, why he had slept in his bloody shirt eluded him, and scratched at the dried blood that still coated his skin. He would need a shower later, but he wanted to hit the training deck, which meant there wasn’t any point in showering beforehand. He easily put on his armour and grabbed his bayard before leaving his room.

Slicing, shooting, and scorching the castles battle bots felt quite therapeutic for Lance. He hadn’t even realised how long he’d been on the training deck until he heard the doors mechanical whoosh. Drawing his attention but not distracting him enough that he would miss the last of the bots, slashing them effectively and turning toward the intruder, broad sword raised.

He spotted Keith still in the doorway, mouth slightly agape, with a confused expression on his face. Lance lowered the sword and deactivated his bayard, storing it on his hip before making his way over to Keith. He checked the time on the display by the door Keith was standing in. 6:03. It was still early enough that he knew Allura and Shiro were most likely up and already discussing something on the bridge. Krolia would be awake as well, but he had no idea where she would be. Hunk would be waking up in an hour or so, to begin making breakfast out of the food goo, like he did every day. And Pidge would still be asleep until 10am, unless she didn’t go to sleep at all.

He debated just leaving, but Keith continued to block his path. He didn't really have to desire to ask the man to move. Instead he leaned back against the wall next to the door. He was thinking of something to say to break the silence that had settled, when Keith broke it for him.

“Since when did you have a sword?” Keith asked, finally stepping into the training deck. His arms were crossed, and his eyes were narrow, Lance wasn’t quite sure how to take that. 

"You've been gone for quite a while, Keith," Lance said leaned his head back against the wall, no longer looking at Keith but staring blankly at the ceiling. He missed the hurt look that crossed over Keith's face and the way Keith opened and closed his mouth as if trying to find the right words to say. 

"Right," Keith replied with a tired sigh, "are you going to continue?"

Lance looked over at the almost hopeful look on Keith's face, any other time he might have said yes, but the exhaustion from the hours he'd spent training was just starting to weigh him down. He felt like a stone, slowly sinking into the depths of the ocean, never to resurface. 

_God, I need a shower_ , Lance thought as he shook his head at Keith and moved passed him to get out the door, _and to stop being so damn depressing. Especially in my own head_.

A hand gripping his arm prevented him from moving further out the door, he turned to look from the hand to Keith's face. He tried to pull but apparently Keith wasn't having any of that, tightening his already strong death grip.

"Lance, are you alright?" Keith asked in a soft, quiet voice. 

The softness and concern in Keith's voice made Lance want to break down right there. If Keith could see that something was wrong with him, how was he supposed to fool the rest of the team into thinking that he was okay. Especially, today of all days.

Lance choked back the sob that was threatening to escape and turned away from the look on Keith's face. Crying about it was useless, he knew, but it didn't stop his tears from trying to fall. With a shuddering breath Lance straightened his shoulders and faced the other.

"I'm fine," Lance said as evenly as he could manage. He even tried for a smile, though he knew it probably looked strained, "you don't have to worry about me."

Keith continued to stare at him for a moment, almost as if he was looking for something in Lance's expression that gave something away. Lance wasn't sure what he was looking for, however, he eventually let go of him, and Lance hightailed it out of the room as soon as possible.

He made his way to his own room, thankful that no one else stopped him on the way, and removed his armour as soon as he could. 

Lance only hoped that the team couldn't hear his worthless sobbing over the sound of the shower.

~~~

The day seemed as if it would continue in much the same way. The strained smile on his face would hopefully be convincing enough that no one would questioned him. Though he was sure Keith would continue to look at him with that same odd expression on his face, with for the most part though, Lance could easily ignore it. 

What would be a lot harder for everyone to ignore was the cosmic space wolf that had, apparently, decide they were not going to leave Lance alone today. Internally, Lance was more than grateful for the company, not wanting to be by himself for long.

Breakfast had been when it had all started. 

Lance was the one of the last people to enter the dining room, knowing that it would have looked odd had he been there any earlier. Allura, Coran, and Shiro, were seated at one end of the table, talking about some mission they were likely to be sent on after breakfast. Krolia and Cosmo were sitting beside Pidge silently, the Galran and space wolf silently taking in the room, whilst the green paladin sat slumped over her computer. Lance wouldn't be surprised if she had yet to sleep, judging by the look of her. He couldn't see Romelle anywhere yet, but he didn't know her well enough to guess where she would be at that moment. 

That only left Keith missing, most likely training, as, as soon as he had sat down, Hunk bustled into the room, plates of food balancing in his hands. He watched as Hunk quickly made his way around the room, dropping plates of food down in front of everyone. Going as far as to remove Pidge's computer from in front of her and settling down a plate instead. Lance could hear her grumbling but accepting the food. In any other situation he would have laughed or make a joke, but today he was silent. It stung a little that no one seemed to notice.

Hunk made his way over to him last, three plates in hand. Settling down the plates and setting himself as well. Lance eyed the extra plate on his other side, knowing it was Keith's but unsure why Hunk had set it down there in particular. He decided it was easier to ignore and turned to his friend. An _almost_ real smile gracing his lips.

"Thanks, Hunk, smells good." He bumped his shoulder with Hunk affectionately. The man hummed around his own food and bumped back with a bit more force than necessary.

The food was... weird. It had the look and texture of the food goo but the taste of something Lance couldn't quite describe, it was an interesting flavour but was definitely way better than the blandness on their usual goo.

It wasn't long until Keith joined them all, hair still slightly damp from his shower. Not that Lance was looking, no, not at all. He didn't turn to Keith as the other sat down in the chair next to him but he almost did. Keith had changed so much in the couple of months he was gone, though for him it was two years, and Lance still couldn't get over the difference that made.

He quickly turned back to his empty plate when he realised that he had indeed been staring, even if he hadn't realised it.

Lance pushed his chair back, cursing himself internally for the blush that had made it's way across his face, about to stand up and clear his plate, when he suddenly found his lap was full of space wolf. He sat stock still, thoughts forgotten, as the wolf looked straight at him before it moved forward and licked a strip up the side of his face. 

Lance cringed as he brought his hand up to wipe away the slobber that was left behind. The damn wolf just huffed and licked again before Lance could manage to wipe it off.

"Argh, stop," Lance whined and the wolf continued before it jumped off his lap, tail wagging and tongue lolling out the side of it's mouth.

It made a small ruff sound, lowering it's front half, tail wagging high in the air. The universal sign for play, in Lance's opinion. It ruffed again, jumping back a bit as if to get a head start on running away, and Lance couldn't have that. That beast had slobbered all over his face.

He slowly got up, forgetting the other people around him, and lunged at the wolf, barely missing it. The wolf wagged it's tail some more before taking off out the room and down the hall. Lance didn't even think twice as he began to run after it.

~~~

It was only when he finally caught Cosmo, the wolf obviously letting him, that he realised the phantom weight on his shoulders had lessened. Lance buried his face in the wolf's fur, enjoying the rumble he got as he scratched absently at it's ears.

"Thank you," he mumbled into the fur, sighing softly as he continued to pat the creature.

Cosmo ruffed quietly in reply and Lance wondered just how smart this animal was. If it even knew that he needed this distraction or not.

The sudden burst of light and tingle of electricity made Lance shoot up from his spot by the wolf. He was grateful that his reaction hadn't been to shriek as he found himself standing in the bridge, everyone's eyes on him.

"Excellent of you to join us, Lance," Allura said as regal as always. "We were just about to get you."

"Ah, sure," Lance said, unable to fully understand what had happened. Had Cosmo just _teleported_ him to the bridge?

"Now that everyone is present, I would like to tell you all, that we have received a distress signal. It appears that there are some Galra that are still working with Zarkon's ideals in mind, and with Lotor" Allura practically spat the name "currently in hiding, many have tried to take his place. With this in mind, we have to be extra cautious when we arrive at our destination." She took a deep breath before continuing. "The castle is still deciphering the signals coordinates, which should take the castle only a few vargas to complete. While this is happening, Shiro and I decided that it would be ideal to use the time we have available for some more team bonding exercises."

There was a collective groan as Allura finished her speech. When it came to team bonding, the Altean's had a funny way of doing it and usually it only ever managed to pull the team further apart. Why was it so hard for the Altean's to see that just chilling, having a games night, watching a movie, chatting to each other, or whatever else, was so much easier and much less painful for the team to bond.

Lance wasn't the leader of this team though, so he would just have to suck it up and deal with it, he guessed. He unconsciously ran his hand through Cosmo's fur, letting out a sigh as he followed the rest of the team out of the room and towards the training deck. Lance just knew that this was going to end horribly.


	3. Keith

Keith's heart clenched as Allura said the team would be doing some team bonding exercises, knowing that he wasn't included in that statement. He had been away from the team for too long to be included and the pain of regret would not leave him as he followed the others out of the bridge. 

He, Krolia, Romelle, and Coran all moved to the observation deck where they would be able to watch the team work together. Keith could see them all standing in a line, Shiro in front explaining what they were about to do. It took Keith a tick to notice something was wrong, as his gaze wandered over to the red paladin. 

One; Cosmo was standing beside Lance. Like the space wolf was meant to be there. And two; was the look on Lance's face. There was a sort of bleakness to his expression, resigned and pained all in one. It was a look Keith had never seen on the boy's face, and it was certainly one Keith never wanted to see ever again.

Keith held himself back from going down there and pulling Lance aside to ask what was wrong, though it was a close thing. Only Krolia, mentioning to the group that Cosmo was standing on the training deck, prevented Keith from demanding answers of the red paladin.

Instead, he listened as Cosmo whined. Looking directly up at him as if asking if he could stay down there, with Lance. Keith wanted to let him, to allow someone have Lance's back, but he knew that Cosmo wasn't allowed there. Hell, he wasn't allowed down there. Keith shook his head in answer to Cosmo's silent question, watching as the wolf huffed in defeat and teleported to Keith's side.

"I know, boy," Keith said softly to Cosmo, running his hand through the wolf's mane. "But we can't."

The wolf whined silently in protest, laying down on the floor in defeat. Keith knelt down beside him, scratching behind Cosmo's ear before moving closer to the observation window.

He leaned on the desk in front of it, peering down at his friends as the simulation began. He felt the shift of air as Cosmo teleported to join him, sitting on the desk. Coran said something about it but Keith wasn't paying attention. He didn't care if the wolf was on the desk. If the wolf wasn't on thw desk he wouldn't be able to watch the team bonding, with just seemed more like training, with Keith.

The simulation was obviously a combat one, fake rocks and debris virtualised all around the floor. Keith hadn't know the training deck could do that but apparently it could. It made sense really, when they had tried to learn Altean, they would get attacked by the virtual computer when they said something wrong, which happened a lot. This though, this looked a lot more life like than the computerised see through beast of the Altean learning program. It was honestly impressive.

"I see you've noticed the upgrades done to the training deck," Coran stated from his side, looking smug as he played with his mustache, "quite a piece of work, that was. Took me a whole pheob to complete. Though it's nothing like my grandfather could have made."

"It certainly is impressive, Coran." Krolia said as she gazed through the glass.

Keith hummed in agreement, watching as his friends took down targets and bots alike. It was honestly amazing to watch as the worked through the simulation. It didn't take them long before it was complete and Shiro was activating a higher level. 

Keith found that he was having trouble watching the others, his eyes constantly wondering over to one person in particular. Eventually he found himself watching only them as they shot, sliced, and move, protecting everyone's back and barking just enough orders to not overrule Shiro, but enough to keep the team together through the simulations where Shiro failed to. 

If Keith was to be truthful, he knew that Lance would make an excellent leader. Even before Keith left he knew he could be, that he just hadn't had the chance. 

He continued to watch until something changed. Their fourth simulation was going well. It was almost nearing the end when Shiro decided to split the team apart.

"Shiro, I don't think that's a good idea," Lance said, still shooting down drones as they tried to move closer.

"You're not the leader, Lance," Shiro spat, "follow orders."

Keith could see the cringe on Lance's face at that comment but he continued on as Shiro said, splitting off from the group as the others did the same. Keith couldn't understand how this could be team building when the team was split like that.

He ignored the murmurs of the others in the room and focused on how the team was going. Hunk and Pidge were making their way left through some less guarded section of the deck, Shiro and Allura doing the same on the right, though it was a lot more heavily guarded. Lance on the other hand was working his way over the top of the rubble, shooting down enemies from both his right and left, while also keeping track of the enemies around him. Keith could feel the tension in his shoulders, Lance was out in the open and no one had his back. It seemed such a stupid plan, Keith wasn't sure how Shiro had come up with it.

It only took a moment for every thing to go to shit.

It was like the gladiator bot came out of nowhere, and considering it was Altean there was a high change that's what happened. It felt like time slowed down around Keith as the gladiator brought it's sword down on Lance. He watched as Lance barely dodged to the side, shooting down an enemy that was about to surprise attack Allura. Lance dodged a second swing, though it clipped the side of his armour, and used his Bayard quickly transforming into a sword to block a third strike.

Keith was completely captivated at how fluidly Lance moved, blocking, dodging, and still having the others back. It wasn't until he managed to take down the first one that Keith gave a shout. A second one grabbed at Lance's ankle before using it to throw him completely off the training deck and into the wall. 

The sharp gasp of pain was all Keith could hear as he raced out the room, not even noticing the air shifting as Cosmo teleported away.

Just as he turned the corner for the training deck Keith could see a figure lying on the floor next to his wolf. He sprinted fasted and slid to his knees as he came up to Lance's side.

He was on his back, a small pile of blood under his head. If it weren't for his breath coming out with a wheezing sound, Keith would have panicked. Well, panicked more that he already was.

Keith gently brushed Lance's hair from his sweaty forehead, not entirely sure what to do. The motion seemed to wake Lance up though which allowed Keith to let out a breath he was unconsciously holding.

Lance looked around dazed for a moment before his eyes locked onto Keith's. The smile that spread from his face was bright and, as Keith returned it with a confused frown, it got much brighter.

"Hey there, gorgeous," Lance said, lifting an arm and running his fingers through Keith's hair, over and over again.

Keith could only open and close his mouth, not completely sure what was happening, though he was fairly sure his face was almost the same color as Red. _How could someone running their fingers through his hair feel so nice? And why Lance?_

Lance let out a light laugh, pulling Keith's face closer to his own, "I love how clueless you are."

He laughed again, breath fanning over Keith's face as they were so close together now. Yet Keith could nothing but sit there, stunned as Lance finally brought their lips together. 

_This wasn't happening right,_ Keith thought, _Lance isn't... He didn't just... what...?!_

Lance beamed as he pulled back, lips moving, he was obviously saying something but Keith's brain had short circuited and he couldn't hear much over the sound of his blood rushing to his face. 

That same sound prevented him from noticing the whoosh of the door opening beside him. Or the two paladins that stood stock still in the doorway, having witnessed the whole scene.

Lance's hand slipped out of Keith's hair as he finished speaking, unable to catch anything the boy had said. Lance laid his head back down, slowly losing consciousness again. Keith couldn't do much more than stare at the boy under him, brain ever so slowly catching up with what had just happened. 

Until he remembered the blood that was lying beneath the paladin's head, again. It caused him to shoot into action, picking the boy up. He was about to run him to the med bay when Cosmo came up beside him and teleported the boys there instead. Luckily it was only a short distance and with a quick 'thanks' from Keith, Cosmo teleported away again.

He had obviously gone to get Coran, as the man arrived just as Keith finished removing Lance's armour. The two working fast as they maneuvered Lance into a pod.

There was a tense silence that carried on the air for a few ticks before Coran spoke, reading out the panel for the pod, "A nasty concussion and a few fractured ribs. Shouldn't take more than a varga or two."

Keith knew that Coran was trying to be comforting but he found himself unsure if anything would reassure him of Lance's health until the boy was awake and active again.

It only took another moment before the rest of the team came in. Hunk was supporting a limping Pidge as she made her way into the room and over to one of the med bay beds. They both looked more concerned at the sight of Lance in a healing pod then the state of Pidge's, obviously, swollen ankle. Shiro and Allura making their way in behind them, Shiro was clutching his human arm, slight burn marks visible from beneath his hand. Romelle and Krolia following at a more sedated pace.

Keith almost recoiled at the expression on Shiro's face, there was a deep fury hidden under his disappointed expression. The disappointment was something that Keith was used to but the fury was what caught Keith off guard. _Why would Shiro have an expression like that? What could even cause Shiro to express such fury?_ It was so unlike the Shiro that Keith knew. Kind, calm, _patience yields focus_ , Shiro. 

Sure Shiro'd get fed up with things occasionally but he was able to deal with Keith, and not many people could. This Shiro though, Keith seriously doubted he'd last a minute with him. What could have happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if there is any mistakes and thank you all for your comments, it truly makes my day XD.


End file.
